The history of solid state nuclear track detectors began in 1958 after initial observations by D. A. Young of fission fragment tracks of lithium fluoride (LiF) irradiated by thermal neutrons. In 1959, Silk and Barnes made these same observations on mica using an electron microscope. Numerous observations have been made since then on a large number of materials. The detectors have the ability to record the passage of particles such as alpha particles, protons, and fission fragments.
In the years that have passed, work by the international scientific community on solid state nuclear track detectors made it possible to develop several dosimetry methods for radioactive nuclei with the use of these detectors. Though these methods use basic knowledge of calculation of the probability that an alpha particle emitted from a radioactive nucleus of a sample can reach and be recorded on a solid state nuclear track detector, they are based on estimation of the global critical angle depending on the sample, the characteristics of the particles to be detected, and the detector. The estimation thus induces an error in the calculation and makes the solid state nuclear track detectors (SSNTDs) imprecise.
Other methods of detection that do not use solid state nuclear track detectors already exist. They involve, for example, geochemical analyses and instrumental techniques such as analysis by neutron activation, analysis by mass spectometry or analysis by gamma spectrometry and liquid scintillation analysis. All of these techniques, often destructive to the samples analyzed, use equipment that is heavy, sophisticated, and especially costly.